It is becoming increasingly common to associate an active wireless tracking device with a product, person, or other animal to monitor that entities' location while the entity is proceeding from one point to another. The location of the device and any sensed data can be communicated directly to a person associated with the tracking device as well as to an appropriate authority via wireless circuitry unless the device is in an area where communication with a wireless network is difficult or non-existent due to obstructions, distance from a network transceiver or other contributing factors.
This process is especially important in connection with products and associated tracking devices that are being transported from a source to a given destination in view of increased theft activity involving containerized goods. Some of the more advanced tracking devices include sensors for additionally monitoring status of the product with which it is associated. In other words, the temperature, the shock events to which the device is subjected, and so forth can be monitored and the data may either be stored or communicated to an appropriate authority for whatever action may be necessary or otherwise appropriate. Typically the tracking device and its associated product are placed in some type of enclosed container for transportation. The enclosed container will normally modify the communication characteristics between the tracking device and the wireless network(s) as compared to non-containerized tracking devices typically used for communication with those same networks. In other words, there is more likely to be gaps in communication between a containerized wireless communication device and the wireless network(s) than would be the case if the wireless device were not in a transportation container. As is well known in the art, there are wireless coverage dead zones where signal transmission and/or reception between a mobile device and a network tower, or other network transceiver, is “nonexistent”, or in other words impossible, as well as fringe areas where signal transmission and/or reception is substantially “difficult”, or in other words degraded. The degradation may be caused by a number of different factors such as low signal strength, inadequate capacity of the communication system for the number of users attempting to communicate, temporary and permanent physical obstructions, and so forth. The degradation of a wireless communication signal at a given location may be measured, or otherwise determined, by a wireless signal communication detection device, such as an RFID tag, as a function of wireless signal quality. In other words, whenever the signal quality of a received (or nonexistent) signal is below a predetermined value, the location may be considered either a fringe or dead zone. The degradation may also be measured by bit error rate, both of which approaches are discussed and/or shown in many previously issued patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,260,322 issued Sep. 4, 2012, in the name of Thomas R. Allen. While typically, or at least very often, a dead zone has a fringe area at least partially surrounding same wherein signal reception and/or transmission is very problematic, or in other words is substantially degraded, fringe areas can exist without being associated with a dead zone. Throughout the remainder of this document, the term “unlikely” as pertains to wireless communication signal transmission and/or reception is to be interpreted as including either or both of fringe areas and dead zones. It should also be noted at this time that when a computer algorithm is attempting to predict or estimate, based upon present speed and other factors, when a given vehicle will arrive at a given location, the term “likely” is used in conjunction with that determination since there are many factors that will or could prevent the prediction from being reasonably exact. Thus, the term “likely” along with other terms such as “substantially” and “unreliable” are used herein consistent with those terms as used in the communication art to describe situations where exactness of computer generated prediction, estimation or determination is often not possible to be an exact value.
As will be apparent, when a tracking device is in a transportation container, the placement in the transportation container, in other words, whether it's in the middle of the transportation container or next to an outside wall of the transportation container, will affect the strength of any signal received by a wireless network. Likewise, if the tracking device is near the center of a transportation container, other products nearby may, at times, depending upon the material of the product, substantially interfere with any transmission from the tracking device to a wireless network.
Further, there are often problems communicating with wireless networks in mountainous areas or where there may be a sparsity of patrons that would be likely to use the wireless service, such as a route through the desert. Also, while tunnels through mountains or under rivers can include the capability of wireless communication, wireless communication is completely absent in many older tunnels. Even in urban areas, there are wireless signal gaps sometimes referred to as urban wireless canyons.
When a wireless device attempts a communication, more battery power is utilized than when the device is merely sitting idle awaiting a future action to be taken. A wireless tracking device periodically attempts to determine location from communicating with a set of GPS satellites, network tower positioning (location determining) data, internally located accelerometers, and so forth. When a location is determined, whether obtained from received data or guesstimated by the device, the device typically will attempt to at least periodically transmit data such as at least the last determined location to a remote receiver such as a central station. The device cannot communicate with GPS type satellites in a tunnel and often times cannot communicate with either GPS type satellites or ground wireless network infrastructure in certain mountainous areas or urban canyons.
When a system is programmed such that a tracking device is scheduled to report at prescribed intervals as to its location and maybe even status of a product being monitored and a central station does not receive a report at the scheduled time, such a lack of report may well be interpreted as a problem such as theft, breakdown of the tracking device and so forth.
It would thus be desirable to find a method of preventing activation of the communication capabilities of the wireless tracking device when there is little likelihood of being able to complete an intended communication and thus wasting battery power and thereby shortening the life of available data transfer capability of the device before reaching a given destination.
It would also be desirable to have the tracking device be able to automatically notify or arrange to notify appropriate authorities in advance of entering an area having a known history of unreliable communication so that the authority notified may take additional steps to monitor the situation where deemed appropriate by that notified authority. Additionally, upon entering an area of unreliable communication, it would be desirable in some instances for the tracking device to alter its actions or responses to sensed conditions.
Further, it would be even more desirable to be able to predict when a transportation container having a given tracking device is in a communication gap whereby an alarm notification is not generated merely because a report is not received from the tracking device at exactly a scheduled time. Likewise, it would be desirable to be able to advise a transportation vehicle operator in advance to use alternate means of reporting to someone since the vehicle will soon be in a communication gap.
In addition, it would be desirable to be able to advise any entities monitoring a given device of the likelihood of an impending coverage gap to avoid the misinterpretation of lack of expected data triggering the calling of appropriate authorities to be dispatched to the area. In a similar manner, where the tracking device is associated with an individual, it may be appropriate to notify the individual of a potential forthcoming communication problem if continuing in the same direction whereby the individual may be able to choose a different route to alleviate the potential lack of communication problem.
It would also be desirable to be able to advise owners of products being tracked of the existence of transportation routes that do not have communication gaps even though travel through these alternate routes may be longer or slower whereby the owners may be afforded the opportunity to factor safety and the increased percentage of wireless coverage into their transportation route decisions.
Likewise, it would be desirable to have the capability to “rank” a given transportation route, according to both the actual and predicted coverage gaps based on the real-time and/or historical information gathered from an installed tracking device or other RF communicating apparatus, to enable an entity with the ability to change the intended route dynamically in response to such information. This capability is especially desirable where the type of coverage (2G, 3G, 4G, LTE, Local Area Network (LAN), satellite, and so forth) is an important part of the determination and factors considered in the decision.